Costa tragedy

We forecast this; on the Costa Classica it took 8 days of passenger complaints before we had an emergency drill; eventually it happened (chaos- not like Thomsons where we drilled before we left the Tyne) and only after we came through a typhoon in the South China Sea. The president of Costa was onboard so he was presented with the complaints of over 1000 passengers- and he was horrid to the Scottish lady who presented them. I wrote to Costa , ABTA and Mail on Sunday (where holiday advertised & seen) as we all felt the cruise had contravened the International Maritime Law- but Costa dismissed our complaint & the other 2 did not even reply.



Heck! Mornings greet us with diamond glittery frosts, frozen bird baths and crisp white rooftops and pavements. Jack Frost is painting our garage door even if it is double glazed- remember the days of ice inside the windows? vests, liberty bodices, chilblains? I can not imagine what life would have been like in medieval Tynemouth Castle above the rivermouth and with a wind off the North Sea fresh from the Russian Urals......



Or in Tynemouth Priory (burial place of kings) in monk's robes & getting up for Matins in the early hours- aagh!



The Fish Quay was busy when we walked in bright sunshine on Saturday.



The river was full of traffic- lots of cargo ships off the mouth- waiting for a pilot?high tide? or a berthing time before coming in?



Admiral Lord Collingwood looked on as the RNLI lifeboat drilled- or was it the pilot boat... too far away in the sun to see. I double clicked on the photo & could read 'PILOT' on the starboard side closest to me (and you!)


The North pier was less long this time but more exciting as waves came over the breakwater from out of nowhere.



The Customs House was where the TV series '55 degrees North' was filmed. Robert Westall wrote and set a lot of his books in this location.


The Black Middens- nicknamed the Widowmakers by fisherfolk in the area- disappeared as the tide rose and the afternoon darkened into evening.



We mooched up to Wallington too but I forgot my camera so I can not show you Hilda Almond's plaque in the sweetly scented, hyacinth,cyclamen,climbing geranium and amaryllis filled conservatory. Next time! The walled garden echoed crisp under the feet of the volunteer gardener cutting back & tidying borders which will burgeon forth but right now do not promise much. The carpets of snowdrops were already drifted across the lawns- I ached for even a Brownie to capture the snap...



I have finished 'When God was a rabbit' -to be read on both sides of the Atlantic methinks. A wee bit contrived to be up to the 2012 view of relationships of all types? Anyway it has been Bookcrossed so where will it go from me.........?